After a successful debut sovereign bond earlier this year, Uzbekistan has already seen one private bank tap the international bond markets and others are expected to follow next year.
This would have been unthinkable under Islam Karimov. The former and late president was also the country’s last first secretary of the communist party. Although he guided the country to independence in 1991, Karimov was an unreconstructed strong man who preferred international isolation to either the shock therapy, or indeed market liberalism, favoured by central Asian peers like Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan.
It all changed with the election of Shavkat Mirziyoyev. After winning the presidential elections in December 2016,...
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